I'll Be There For You
by XOXOJordan
Summary: She was a doctor, she new the signs, something was wrong but she never expected it to be this. Will one unlikely person be there for her when she needs someone the most?
1. Chapter 1

Wade walked into Lavon's kitchen expecting to find Zoe sitting at her normal spot eating her breakfast. However for the third time that week, she was nowhere in sight. Wade had gotten to know Zoe rather well in the last month and one thing he learned was that Zoe Hart was always on time. If she was even a minute late she would freak, it was just another trait of her uptight self.

Deciding not to think too much of it Wade grabs a bowl and pours himself some breakfast. He's bound to run into the brunette at some point today. And he sure was right.

"Doc I got a problem." Wade yells as he walks into the practice and into Zoe's office. He stops dead in his tracks when he sees her with her head resting on her arm, eyes closed.

The sound of his voice must have startled her because she jumps. "Oh hey Wade." She says tiredly as she notices his presents.

"Are you feeling alright?" Wade asks clearly concerned. He would never tell her this out loud but Zoe looked like hell. Her face was pale and she was pretty sure she had lost a few pounds, something she did not need to do.

"I'm fine." She told him as she shook her head and then stood up walking over to we're he was standing. "Just didn't get enough sleep last night. Now what's wrong with you?"

Wade looked Zoe up and down. He still was a little skeptical about what was wrong but decided to leave it. "Oh the stupid fence at the Rammer Jammer cut my leg." Lifting his pant leg up he revealed the cut that was wrapped up with a white T-shirt.

Zoe dragged herself through the front door of her house later that evening. She was exhausted. Not even bothering with dinner she crawled into her bed and fell right asleep. She didn't care that it was barely six o'clock and just getting dark.

15 hours. She had been asleep for nearly fifteen hours and she was still exhausted. When she woke up the next morning she found the room spinning and her head pounding. Her whole body ached like she had just run a marathon.

She called DeDe to explain to her that she wouldn't be able to come in today and the crawled deeper into her covers. It was probably just some 24 hour flu and maybe if she slept all day it would be gone by morning.

The next day things had gotten worse. Along with the pounding in her head, fatigue and dizziness she also felt nauseas. She couldn't miss work again however. Using all her energy she got up out of bed and for ready for the day.

"I'm closing the practice early today." Brick told Zoe later that afternoon. "The fishing tournament starts in an hour."

On any normal day Zoe would have complained. She would have said something about keeping it open, she would handle any patient that happened to stop by. But today was not a normal day. She just wanted to go home and sleep.

That was exactly what she was going to do, sleep. She was about to lock the doors of the practice and head home when she remembered that she was supposed to meet Rose. She had a school project on New York due this week and Zoe had promised that she would help her. Sighing she headed for the Rammer Jammer.

Wade was taking out the trash when he spotted Zoe. He hadn't seen much of her the last few days and decided it was time to give her a hard time. Closing the dumpster lid he walked over to her.

"Miss me so much you had to come visit me at work?" He asked the tiny brunette with a grin.

"Actually I came to help Rose with a project." Zoe told him. The two continued to walk and a wave of dizziness hit her. Wade must have noticed because a look of concern crossed his face.

"Zoe are you ok?"

"I'm fine." Zoe wasn't so sure though as the words escaped her lips and her body began to sway.

"Woah." Wade said as he grabbed ahold of her arm to try and steady her, just in time as the doctor collapsed into his arms. "Zoe. Look at me." He said panic in his voice as he gently tapped her face. "Come on doc wake up." Still nothing. Wade looked around for help. "I need help over here!" He yelled out loud. "Somebody call an ambulance!"

The next few moments passed by in a blur. A crowed formed wondering what drama the New Yorker was bringing about now. Someone must have went and gotten Brick seeing as he was now crouched down next to Wade.

"What happened?"

Wade shook his head. "We we were talking and I noticed her swaying and then she was in my arms." He said with panic in his voice.

"Her pulse is a little weak." He said to nobody in particular. "Did anybody call an ambulance?"

"They are about twenty minutes away." George said pushing through the crowed and joining wade and Brick.

"Let's get her inside the practice while we wait for them." Wade lifted Zoe up and carried her into the practice.

The fact that she was a lot lighter then he remembered scared him. All of this scared him. Something was wrong with the doctor and he was afraid of what it might be. Wade wasn't one to deal with sickness. His mom had died and ever since then he never really had hope when it came to an illness.

They got Zoe inside the practice and Brick got her started on an IV. He explained that that was all they could really do until the ambulance got there. Her heart rate had gone back to almost normal and she didn't seem to be in any danger. She was just asleep. Her bodies way of fighting off whatever was wrong with her.


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm glad you all are interested in this story. I got lots of likes and alerts for this story. Like everyone always says, reviews are the best. I love to know exactly what you guys think, good or bad and it's great to know if you have any ideas for this story. Your ideas are always welcome. Hope you enjoy this next chapter.**

**XOXOJordan**

Zoe felt like she was floating. Her once pounding head wasn't pounding anymore and she didn't have a nauseas feeling. Opening her eyes she took in her surroundings, not exactly sure what was going on. The walls were white and she heard an obnoxiously loud beeping. That's when she realized she was in a hospital bed with in IV drip and a heart monitor hooked up to her. Looking to her left she spotted Wade sitting there.

"What happened?" Her shaky voice asked.

Wade looked up at her a small smile escaped his lips. "You're awake." He said as he brushed her hair off her forehead. If Zoe had been her normal self she would have made some joke about the romantic gesture but not now.

"What's wrong with me?" She asked somewhat scared. She remembers being sick but she didn't think it was anything serious enough to land her in the hospital.

"Your doctors not sure, they are running some test to see if they can figure it out." He explained, "Zoe do you remember what happened?" She shook her head no. "You passed out in the middle of town. Luckily Brick was there and he couldn't get you to wake up. So we called an ambulance and the rushed you here to Mobil."

Zoe groaned. If the town didn't think she was a joke of a doctor before they sure would now. What kinda doctor winds up in the hospital as a patient themselves? "Nobody is gonna take me serious as a doctor now."

"Everyone gets sick, even pesky doctors like you."

There was a knock and the two both looked to see a young female wearing a white lab coat. She had a stethoscope around her neck and Zoe assumed she was her doctor.

"Glad to see you are a wake Dr. Hart." She said with a smile as she walked into her room. "I'm Dr. Lobel, I'll be working on your case."

"It's nice to meet you."

"If you don't mind, Mr. Kinsella." The doctor said.

"Oh yeah um I'll be right back." Wade said as he got up from his chair. Zoe on the other hand had a different story and grabbed his hand.

"He can stay."

Pulling up a small chair, Dr. Lobel sat down. "Now I want to discuss your recent test results with you." Zoe nodded. "When you came into the ER this afternoon we noticed that your lymph nodes along your neck were slightly swollen." Zoe touched her neck out of habit. Sure enough her glands were swollen. "Your blood work also came back with a few abnormalities."

Zoe felt a lump form in her mouth, afraid of what the doctor was about to tell her. Wade obviously not understanding what exactly Dr. Lobel was saying sat up in his chair. "So what is wrong with her?"

"We will need to do a biopsy to conform but I believe Dr. Hart here is in the early stages of Hodgkin's Lymphoma. "

"Look I know I'm not a doctor or anything but what the heck is that?" Wade asked clearly aggravated.

Zoe turned to him with tears in her eyes. "It's a type of cancer."

The moment the words escaped Zoe's lips Wade swore the world stopped. This was bad. This was really bad. People died from cancer. His Momma died from cancer. "I want a second opinion."

"I know this is a lot to handle right now, and like I said we will need to do a biopsy to verify, but this cancer is very treatable. I believe we caught it at its earliest stage and with the right treatment you should be able to live a healthy normal life."

"When would I have the biopsy?"

"We would like to schedule it for this evening." Zoe nodded. "I would also like to talk about you receiving a port. I'm sure you already know what that is?"

Zoe nodded then looked over at Wade. "It's a round disk like thing they plant under my skin and it is attached to one of my veins that way it will be easier when I receive my treatment."

"What kind of treatment exactly would Zoe be receiving?"

"The most common form of treatment is a course of chemotherapy called ABVD. It is made up of four drugs, Adriamycin, bleomycin, vinblastine and decarbazine. We would give it in cycles, and one cycle is given over four weeks. We would give you one dose at day one of the cycle and the next dose on day 15."

"How many cycles would I go through?"

"It is generally six months long with six cycles, however cycles can be delayed if your blood counts are low or you come down with an infection. "

Zoe head was swimming with all the information she had been given. She had cancer. Sure it was a common cancer and she knew the outlook was pretty well but it was still cancer. A disease that many people died from, a disease that she was pretty sure Wade's mom had died from. Shit.

After making sure that neither Zoe nor Wade had any more questions she excused herself. A resident would be in after a while to prep Zoe for her biopsy.

Wade hadn't said anything in twenty minutes, he just held onto Zoe's hand like it was a lifeline and stared at the white wall in front of him.

"It's not as bad as it sounds." She told him breaking the silence.

"Zoe you have cancer, you can't tell me it's not as bad as it sounds." He told her as he ran his hand through his hair.

"Look I've worked around people with cancer, lots of people survive it. And Dr. Lobel she said she thinks they caught it early. I'm going to be fine. I'm going to have the chemo and then in six months I'll be done."

Wade couldn't help but smile as Zoe's optimism. Maybe she was right; this wasn't 15 years ago when cancer was a death sentence. Zoe was going to beat this.

"Just promise me one thing?" Zoe asked him.

"Anything."

"You will be by my side every step of the way?"

"Promise."

"Even when I'm puking my guts out in the pink bucket over there?" She asked with a laugh as she pointed to a pink bucket near the sink across the room.

"Even then." Wade said as he sat down next to Zoe in the tiny hospital bed and wrapped his arms around her pulling her in a hug.


	3. Chapter 3

Zoe woke up hours later. The room was pitch dark and looking out the window she saw the glow of the streetlights. Wade was sound asleep softly snoring in the makeshift bed they must have given him. It was a small cot the looked even smaller as he slept on it. Zoe sat up and felt a stabbing feeling in her neck. Touching it she felt a bandage and then she remembered her biopsy. Pushing her shirt down she noticed a piece of gauze that must be wear they placed her port.

"How ya feeling?" A nurse asked as she came into Zoe's room.

"As great as anyone who just found out they have cancer is going to feel." Zoe told the nurse as she checked Zoe's vitals. Being on the other side of the fence like this, she realized how annoying it was to be poked and prodded at all the time.

The nurse smiled. "Who's the handsome guy over there? Boyfriend?"

Zoe almost burst out laughing. "No. He's my neighbor, a royal pain in the ass but he is also about the only friend I have in Alabama. I'm from New York."

"Well he sure seems like a keeper to me." The nurse said as she finished checking Zoe's temperature. "If I were you I would get some rest. I think you start your chemotherapy in the morning."

Zoe decided to do as she was told and curled up in a ball. She couldn't help but fall asleep thinking of Wade.

Zoe woke up the next morning to find Wade gone. Figuring he had just gone to get some breakfast or something she headed towards the bathroom, she felt disgusting and she was in desperate need of a shower. Seeing as that was out of the question she tried to clean herself up as good as she good. After washing her face and brushing her teeth she headed back out to her hospital room ready to get the dreadful chemo over with. Opening the door she stopped and smiled when she saw Lavon standing there with a giant stuffed animal.

"Lavon!" She said happily as she gave him a hug. "What are you doing here?"

"Lavon Hayes had to come see his favorite girl." Lavon said with a smile. "You sure gave us all a scare yesterday."

"I'm going to be fine." Zoe assured him.

"I know you will." Lavon said with a grin.

"Alright ready to get started on your first cycle?" A nurse asked later on the morning. She wasn't the same nurse as Zoe had talked to last night and she couldn't help but be a bit disappointed.

"Guess so." Zoe said with a shrug as Wade and Lavon watched.

"Alright first I am going to give you an antiemetic to hopefully help prevent any nausea you may start to feel later on. Then I am going to hook up a bag of the Adriamycin, once that is finished I will hook up the bleomycin and after that the last two."

Zoe watched as she removed the gauze and cleaned the area with iodine. She then inserted a needle and got her IV in place. Zoe didn't even flinch as the needle pierced her skin.

"Alright I will come check on you in an hour to see how you're doing." She said with a smile as she gathered her things and left.

It was thirty minutes into her chemo when Lavon left. She wasn't sure if it was really because he had a meeting or if it was because he was afraid of what was going to come next. He promised Zoe he would be back in the morning and then he quickly made his way out the door. Zoe sighed.

"How ya feeling?" Wade asked as he turned his attention from the fishing show he was watching.

"I have a small headache nothing I can't handle."

Zoe feel asleep and when she woke up later on the worst nausea she had ever felt came over her. Her head was pounding and her ears were ringing. A lump filled in her throat and she knew what was coming.

"I'm gonna be sick." She said out loud. Wade was next to her in a flash with that pale pink bucket.

Wade held her hair back and kept telling her everything was going to be ok until she was finished. Afterword's he helped her drink some of her water and then he leaned her bed back. She must have fallen asleep again because she once again woke up to that same feeling. She found herself once again hunched over the puke bucket with Wade by her side.

"I'll see if they can give you some more of that Zofran stuff." Wade told her once Zoe was settled back in bed.

Zoe mumbled something and it took Wade a second to realize what she had said. Crawling next to her he wrapped his arms around her and she laid her head on his chest.

Zoe couldn't remember much of the first twelve, maybe even twenty four hours following her first round of chemotherapy. The majority of the time had been spent sleeping and when she wasn't sleeping she was throwing up.

The first time she had actually woken up and was coherent she spotted Wade talking to her doctor. She felt pressure in her bladder and realized she had to pee, she couldn't even remember the last time she had actually gone pee. Sitting up she slowly walked to the bathroom, and to her surprise she was IV free.

When she emerged from the bathroom Wade had just entered the room with a smile on his face. "You're awake. Good."

"I think I would rather be sleeping." She told him as she closed her eyes, the sunlight already giving her a headache.

"Well don't sleep for to long you get to go home."

"I do?"

"Ya. Dr. Labin says that you took to the chemo well and there is no need to keep you any longer. Your next round is in 13 days and they said you're just going to have it in the outpatient wing."

"Well?" Zoe said with a raised eyebrow. "I have been puking my guts out for the last twenty four hours."

Wade chuckled. "Better get used to it doc."

Zoe just groaned.


	4. Chapter 4

They managed to get twenty minutes into the car ride home before Wade had to pull over onto the side of the road. Zoe barely waited for him to get his truck into park before she had the door open and was leaning outside of it gagging. Luckily Wade had become prepared and already had a bottle of water and some of that anti-nausea medicine waiting.

Zoe gave him a sheepish smile as she took the bottle of water as well as the tiny white capsule. The rest of the ride was smooth sailing seeing as Zoe had fallen asleep. Wade pulled up to the plantation and parked the truck in front of Lavon's.

Zoe's doctor had explained that she needed to be in a fairly clean environment. Both Wade and Lavon thought her staying at the carriage house was not the best idea. It was a fairly old house and who knew what kind of dirt and dust had been hanging around in it for the last hundred years or so.

Wade didn't want to wake up Zoe so he scooped her up in his arm and carried her inside.

"The guest bedroom is all ready for her." Lavon told Wade when he saw him caring a sleeping Zoe.

Heading up the steps Wade laid Zoe down in the queen sized bed covering her up. He then grabbed that oh so famous pink bucket and put it on her bedside table. Lastly he grabbed some Zofran and a water bottle and put it next to the bucket.

Wade figured she would be out for at least a couple hours so he went downstairs to see what his best bud was up too.

"Everything alright?" Lavon asked Wade as he came down the steps.

"Yeah she is probably going to be out of it for the rest of the night. The nausea from the chemo still hasn't completely worn off." Walking over to the fridge Wade grabbed a beer; he definitely needed one after the last few days. "And she's been exhausted."

"Glad to know Miss Zoe is doing alright but I meant with you." Lavon said grabbing a beer of his own and sitting down next to Wade.

"I'm not the one who is sick."

"Wade. I have known you since we were playing little league. You're in love with her."

Wade scoffed. "I am not in love with her. She is sick and has no family here; somebody has to take care of her."

"Whatever you say."

Zoe woke up to find the sun shining in her room and for the first time in days it didn't give her the worst headache in the century of headaches. She didn't feel the urge to throw up and she took that as a good sign. Sitting up in bed she took in her surroundings and realized she wasn't in her own room. This bed was way too comfy and the room was way too nice. Walking over to the window she saw her house and Wade's trailer in the distance. So she was at Lavon's

Walking into the conjoined bathroom Zoe looked at her reflection. She looked horrible. Her hair was a mess and her skin was pale. The gauze was still on her neck from where they did the biopsy.

She spotted fresh towels and a t-shirt and pair of her yoga pants sitting on the sink. A shower sounded perfect.

After her shower Zoe felt much better. After getting dressed and combing through her hair she decided to go downstairs. Walking through the house she found Wade sitting on the couch playing a video game on the Xbox. Wade put the controller down and smiled when he saw her coming to sit down next to him.

"Sleeping beauty has awoken."

Zoe sat down next to him and tucked her knees up to her chest. "Where is Lavon at?" she asked noticing the absents of the Mayor.

"He had some luncheon to go too."

"Luncheon?"

Wade chuckled. "Yeah people usually it lunch when it's two in the afternoon."

Zoe could not believe she had slept that late! She was never one to sleep in. She liked to live by the saying, 'The early bird catches the worm.' "I cannot believe I slept that late."

Wade shrugs. "It happens. How are ya feeling anyways? Hungry?"

Just the thought of food made Zoe's stomach turn. So maybe she wasn't feeling as great as she thought she was. She knew she needed to eat though. The less she ate the weaker her body was going to get. "Maybe I will just eat some soup."

Wade went into the kitchen to make the two of them some soup while Zoe laid out on the couch watching some movie.

Turns out the movie Zoe was watching was the notebook. Wade was pretty sure if this was any other girl he would not be watching this movie with her. Things with Zoe were different. He was pretty sure that girl could make him do just about anything, even if it entitled sappy love movies.

Once the credits began to roll he looked over to find Zoe sound asleep grabbing the cover that was draped over the couch he covered her up and turned off the TV. It was nearing five o'clock and he was supposed to be at the Rammer Jammer in twenty minutes. He scribbled Zoe a quick note and then headed out the door, hoping that the night would go by fast so he could come back home.

"Can I get a beer Wade?" Steve, one of the regulars asked Wade.

"Sure thing Steve." Walking over to where they kept the beers Wade grabbed one and popped the top off before handing it to him.

"I heard about Dr. Hart." Steve told him as he took a drink of his beer. "How's she doing anyway?"

Wade sighed. This was like the millionth time someone had asked about Zoe, news sure did travel fast around Bluebell, even bad news. "She's hanging in there." Wade said.

"Well she is in all of our prayers. If you guys need anything at all just ask." Wade thanked Steve before turning back to look at the clock. It was just now hitting midnight. He took a look at the bar only to find a handful of people there. He was closing early tonight.

Walking through the front door he automatically went to see how Zoe was doing. He would have called to check up on her but he was afraid he might wake her. Sure enough there she was still sound asleep on the couch. Lavon sat in the nearby recliner.

"She was sleeping when I got home." Lavon told him.

Wade picked her up carefully in his arms and began to take her upstairs. She didn't need to be sleeping on the couch when she had a perfectly fine bet to sleep in upstairs. Just like he did the last time Wade tucked Zoe in and placed a bottle of water, as well as the pink bucket and some medicine by her bedside table.

He was almost out the door when he heard her softly speak. "Stay."


End file.
